


Hold Me Closer

by roseofaries



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Family Dynamics, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hair Braiding, Hurt/Comfort, It's doubtful, Mentioned Ghost Wilbur Soot, Mentioned TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Mentioned Wilbur Soot, Mostly Fluff, Parent Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Phil Watson Tries (Video Blogging RPF), SBI Family Dynamic, Sad Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), Technoblade Has Braided Hair (Video Blogging RPF), Technoblade Has a Heart (Video Blogging RPF), Technoblade Needs a Hug (Video Blogging RPF), Touch-Starved, Wholesome, Wilbur Soot and Technoblade and TommyInnit are Siblings, Wilbur Soot and Technoblade are Siblings, Winged Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), he gets one, i wish all techno apologists and people who recognize that tommy is a child a very pleasant evening, phil is a good dad, this one is happy, to techno and also kind of to tommy, will tagging ever come easy to me?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-01
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-14 07:22:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29788437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roseofaries/pseuds/roseofaries
Summary: After the Community House is blown up, Tommy betrays Technoblade.Techno is pretty upset over it all, so Phil tries to help.
Relationships: Technoblade & Phil Watson, Technoblade & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), TommyInnit & Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Wilbur Soot & Phil Watson, Wilbur Soot & Technoblade, Wilbur Soot & Technoblade & TommyInnit & Phil Watson
Comments: 9
Kudos: 105





	Hold Me Closer

**Author's Note:**

> One day, I will figure out how to do italics in AO3 and it'll be over for all of you lmao. I'll get my main character arc. 
> 
> Until then enjoy and please feel free to leave a comment or kudos, that shit makes my day :)

“Am I a monster, Phil?”

The first time he’d heard that question from Technoblade was a night that Phil would never forget. 

He had found the piglin as a child, trapped in a disgusting fighting ring against his will because he was a hybrid, hungry and neglected. The people who ran the ring had only cared that he fought well and that he won his fights. They had treated him like an animal- he only got food if he behaved and fought well. And they treated him like a monster. They locked him up all the time unless he was fighting, chained him to the walls even despite the iron bars that kept him from hurting the guards. It was horrible. 

When Phil had found him there, he’d broken him out of that godforsaken place and taken him in. Technoblade was the first of many traumatized adoptees. For a long time after he was saved, Technoblade was tormented by his captors actions and words, both during the night and his waking hours. Phil had been woken many nights by his terrified screams or broken sobs. He had spent just as many nights comforting the boy as best he could. 

One night in particular, He’d rushed in after being woken by a thump from the room next to his. The sound was followed with what were definitely sobs, and a spike of fatherly concern mixed with a healthy dose of terror shot through Phil. 

He came into the room, a tired mess having just woken up but determined to help the crying kid who he’d claimed as his own. Technoblade was clutching his head, tugging on his long ears and hair. He was even more of a mess than Phil was. He was facing away from the door where Phil held a lantern, curled in on himself miserably. Technoblade had recently told Phil about these loud voices he’d been hearing all of his life. Maybe those were being loud and giving him a headache?

“Techno?” Phil had asked tentatively. The boy had flinched harshly at the sound like he hadn’t noticed Phil. That was odd- usually Technoblade was very aware of his surroundings. The motion made him tug on his ears and he whimpered at the pain. He looked at Phil like a deer in headlights, his eyes wide and painfully afraid, but no other sound came out of him. 

“What’s wrong?” Phil asked. He sat himself on the bed next to Technoblade, close enough to comfort but far enough to avoid making the situation worse. 

“Am I-” he choked down another sob and pushed through. “Am I a monster, Phil?”

Phil’s answer then is the same as it is now. 

“Of course you aren’t, mate.” He has Technoblade pressed against him in a hug, and their proximity is the only reason Phil can even hear the question, spoken as quietly as it is. Phil has his wings wrapped around him to block out the world as he cries. Technoblade just pushes his face further into his shoulder at the response. He makes a miserable sound in the back of his throat and his hands twitch to pull on his hair but Phil grabs them first. He holds his hands comfortingly in one of his and runs his other through pink hair. Phil’s heart is breaking right now, if he’s honest. His oldest son is one of the strongest people he knows, and to see him so vulnerable and upset is unusual. It only makes it worse that the reason he’s so upset is because of his youngest brother. 

“What did I do wrong?” Technoblade asks. His voice cracks and Phil can only hold him tighter. 

“What do you mean? You didn’t do anything wrong, Techno,” Phil responds. Emotional heart-to-hearts have never been their thing, and he’s worried he may have lost his touch over the years, but he knows that he needs to be a strong voice of reason right now. That, at least, he knows he’ll be able to manage. 

“Well obviously I did something. I trusted Tommy, Phil- I trusted him! I fed him and I gave him gear and a safe place to stay. I protected him from Dream and-” Technoblade pauses and takes a shaky breath. He pushes himself away from Phil enough to sit up and look him in the eyes. “And I gave him my ax. But then he- he just threw me aside for the guy who exiled him.”

“Techno-”

“He wouldn’t even give me the damn axe back. I liked that one,” Technoblade interrupts petulantly. It’s childish and kind of pouty, and Phil can’t help the laugh that leaves him. Technoblade glares at him and he puts his hands up in surrender. His son scoffs fondly and looks away with a little smile but soon his expression drops again. “Maybe if I’d done something differently, been better somehow, he wouldn’t have betrayed me like that.”

Phil sighs. “Techno, you did everything just fine, if you ask me. I mean, from what I saw you were pretty clear with your aims to Tommy. He ignored the warnings, and that’s on him, man. You took care of him the best you could, and I know he appreciated that from you, even if he decided that he wanted to stay with Tubbo. You have every right to be mad about the ax, though,” Phil says with a laugh. Technoblade sighs and drops his head back against Phil’s shoulder. That clearly wasn’t the response he was looking for. “Look, Techno. I don’t think you did anything wrong. I think that Tommy is a child and he wants his friend, and that because of your beliefs that meant that he had to betray you. But you gotta remember he’s a kid, mate. You did exactly what I would have hoped you would. You were ready to jump into that fight in the community house with what, like thirty people? Just to save the kid. There’s nothing else you could have done.”

Technoblade nods against his shoulder and makes a vague noise of agreement. Tommy really didn’t deserve the shit he got. He’s a child, Technoblade knows this. He can make mistakes, but the insult of it all was still fresh and he couldn’t help but be sore over it. 

“I just feel like I’m just ‘The Blade’ to Tommy sometimes. A weapon and a resource pool without feelings or something. I’m sick of being used and tossed away, Phil,” he says. Phil winces a little at Tommy’s well-intentioned nickname for his older brother whom he looks up to so much. He doubts Technoblade ever told him, but that’s the exact name they gave him in that goddamn fighting ring. 

“I know, Techno, I know.”

They pass a long moment in silence, listening to the fire crackling in the fireplace. There’s a wet spot on Phil’s shirt where Technoblade is still resting his head. . Phil’s glad, despite everything, that Technoblade still trusts him enough to be this vulnerable with him. He’d come to Phil all the time as a kid looking for comfort as they got more comfortable living together. After Wilbur was added to the mix, however, it became less frequent. Phil was glad that his sons communicated and trusted each other enough to go to each other for comfort, but sometimes he missed holding them close and protecting them from their worries with his wings wrapped around them. 

“Can I braid your hair?” Phil asks after an uncertain amount of time. Technoblade makes a sound of affirmation and pushes off of Phil to sit in front of him. His hair is still in a braid, literally speaking, but he’s been raking hands through it and tugging on it so much that you wouldn’t be able to tell it was a braid by looking at it anymore. 

They don’t have any brushes or combs down in the living room at the moment, so Phil removes the hair tie from the bottom of the braid and begins to gently run his fingers through Technoblade’s hair. 

This has always been one of the easiest ways to calm Technoblade down after an emotional outburst of any kind- violent and angry, sad, anything. Wilbur’s the one who discovered it, back in the day. It was after they’d been sparring and Technoblade had gone a little too far. Phil had had to step in and when Technoblade had come to, he was in tears. It was the first time the voices had ever been so powerful that he hurt his own family, and it terrified him. 

Wilbur, a little scuffed up but otherwise completely recovered from the situation had immediately taken to making sure his brother was okay. Phil had watched with awe and pride as Wilbur took Technoblade’s hands from his hair gently before asking to braid it. Technoblade’s hair was so long, he’d said, it would probably much easier with it out of his face. The real intent behind the action was obvious. 

Since then, braiding his hair had worked like a charm. Phil and Wilbur (and Ghostbur still) were always so willing to braid it whenever he asked that Technoblade probably couldn’t do it himself. It was routine, something that they could all look forward to, a bonding experience that required no talking, or expenditure of energy. 

Right now, Phil has brushed out the pink hair enough to be ready to start braiding. Technoblade already seems to be half asleep, and it warms Phil’s heart. Fair enough, he thinks, let the kid rest. Emotions are a lot, man. 

He starts off on the braid and by the time he’s half way down the hair, there’s soft snoring coming from the body in front of him. Phil smiles and continues the braid a bit faster now. He finishes it off with the hair tie and stands up. He stares at his son, sat cross-legged on the carpet in front of the fire, slumped over with his head resting in his open palm. Phil decides that moving him to the couch would be too much jostling (and also too much effort on his part. Techno is heavy.) and instead brings out a pillow and a blanket and lays him out on the floor. He smiles and pets his hair, careful to avoid messing up the fresh braid. 

After Technoblade is all set up on the floor, Phil goes into the kitchen to make some hot chocolate. He knows that whilst Technoblade is peacefully asleep for now, that peace never lasts long with him. He’ll be up sooner than either he or Phil want him to be, so he might as well have something warm and sweet prepared for him when he wakes up.


End file.
